State ranks high in gun violence, low in gun safety

Last Modified: Friday, May 24, 2013 11:53 AM

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana has the highest rate of gun violence in the nation and the weakest gun safety laws, according
to a recent national study, and state lawmakers are moving to expand the already permissive statutes.

According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun
Violence, a nonprofit group that tracks gun regulations around the
nation, Louisiana's
push is contrary to a national trend toward strengthening firearm
laws after the recent Connecticut mass school shooting.

"It puts Louisiana in the same category as a
minority of states that spend time on largely symbolic measures," said
Laura
Cutilletta, senior staff attorney for the Law Center. "These laws
clearly are not going to be upheld. It's something the courts
will have to decide, not the states."

The most far-reaching gun proposals in the Louisiana Legislature seek to preempt federal law, as a states' rights issue. They
have been easily approved in the House and await action in the Senate.

One measure, by Rep. Jim Morris, R-Oil City, would prohibit enforcement of any federal restrictions on semi-automatic weapons.
After opponents of the bill repeatedly questioned the legality of the proposal, the Senate delayed a vote, but supporters
vowed to return for another attempt to get it passed.

Another proposal, by Rep. Joe Lopinto,
R-Metairie, would create the Louisiana Manufactured Firearms and
Ammunition Act, to
allow gun buyers to circumvent any federal gun law if the weapon
was manufactured in the state and remained there. It awaits
a hearing in the Senate's budget committee.

Similar efforts have been tried in other states.

A Montana federal appeals court is
considering the merits of a state law after a lower court rejected that
state's Firearms
Freedom Act as unconstitutional. Montana was the first state to
create such a law in 2009 that would prohibit federal oversight
of state-made firearms.

In April, Kansas lawmakers passed a bill
later signed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback that prohibits federal
enforcement
of any national firearm laws if the guns are state-made. That
prompted a warning letter to Brownback from U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder stating that the law violated the U.S. Constitution.

Around the nation, 1,152 bills were filed related to gun regulations this year. Of those, 603 sought to strengthen laws and
549 would weaken them, Cutilletta said.

The trend toward boosting restrictions on guns can be attributed to the December school shooting in Newtown, Conn. that left
20 elementary school students and six educators dead. They were shot with a semi-automatic weapon.

"I think that resonated with people and gave legislators a lot more courage because they knew they had the voices of the people
behind them," Cutilletta said.

But in Louisiana, bills aimed at toughening
regulations on weapons never made it past the first debate, including
one that
would have required owners to secure their weapons in a locked box
or with some type of safety trigger when stored in a home.

Supporters of proposals to loosen gun
restrictions have brushed aside colleagues' arguments that gun access
should not be
expanded in a state where a study reports the number of per
capital gun deaths is nearly three times higher than the national
average.

"It's important that we don't govern by crisis," said Sen. Elbert Guillory, D-Opelousas.

Guillory and many other Democrats have voted
with Republicans this session to advance pro-gun legislation, like a
proposal
by Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Bossier City, that would make it a
misdemeanor to release or publish the names and addresses of people
who own or have applied for concealed handgun permits.

The bill has been backed by both the House and Senate and awaits approval of a final version before heading to Gov. Bobby
Jindal's desk. It would carry a $10,000 fine for anyone who publishes the information, like reporters or bloggers.

According to a study by the left-leaning Center for American Progress, Louisiana had more deaths per capita from guns than
any other state from 2001 to 2010. The study indicated that Louisiana has the highest gun-homicide rate among residents 19
years old and younger.

Cutilletta's organization gave the state an
"F," ranking it 45th out of 50 states in terms of gun safety. She said
there appears
to be a correlation between "weak" state gun laws and the slew of
bills filed in those states that seek to override or nullify
federal laws.

Lawmakers in 30 states, including Louisiana, introduced some type of legislation this year to restrict federal oversight of
gun regulations, according to data collected by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Although the sense of urgency for restricting possible federal gun control laws has waned since a bill to expand background
checks didn't make it out of the U.S. Senate earlier this year, gun advocates say laws that limit federal enforcement are
needed on the books.

Articles such as this are precisely what fuels the feeding frenzy on firearms. I can't believe the American Press would publish such blantantly slanted mis-information. DC is far worse than Louisiana and they have stricter laws. But anyone can manipulate data to persuade the sheep. People should check the stats for themselves at . . http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4616